Patience – and lots of it - is a necessary trait for anyone married to a politico. Late nights, working weekends, a thousand rubber chicken fundraising dinners and birthdays and anniversaries lost to policy demands are all part of the game. As Maine...
Immigration In The US The U.S. Supreme Court rejects a call by President Donald Trump to include grandparents and other relatives in his travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries. The ruling means that grandparents, grandchildren, aunts...
Hunters in Virginia have for years been required to wear a Day-Glo orange vest to make sure their fellow hunters can more easily discern them from Bambi before firing off a few rounds. But if Virginia state Sen. Richard Stuart has his way Old Dominion...
Donald Trump’s surprising victory last week has roiled households, workplaces and the public square. Supporters are of course elated while opponents are not. That very scenario is playing out in earnest at the University of Virginia, where the Washington...
AR Revives Voter ID Law ARKANSAS’ Republican-controlled House approved a voter ID bill last week ( HB 1047 ) that is nearly identical to a voter ID law unanimously struck down by the state’s Supreme Court in 2014. Four of the justices in...
Government definitely has its share of insect-like participants, but things recently got downright buggy for the folks at the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget. As the Detroit Free Press reports , workers there had to be temporarily...
Attention, all you pathetic cringing little milksops – Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin has had enough of your wimpy whining! As the Washington Post reports , Bevin went on a radio show last week where he proceeded to lament the closing of some Bluegrass...
Alabama Approves HB 36 The ALABAMA House approves HB 36 , which would extend the Heart of Dixie’s so-called “stand your ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force to defend themselves, to include churches. It moves to the...
In 2015 a grass-roots group gathered enough signatures for a public vote on raising Kansas City’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2020. But Judge Justine Del Muro of the 16th Circuit Court in Jackson County blocked the proposal from going on the...
Last week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a 2013 Texas law requiring doctors and clinics that perform abortions to meet hospital-like standards resulted in the almost immediate effective invalidation of similar laws facing legal challenge...
The home-sharing website Airbnb has faced its share of resistance from regulators in recent years as its explosive growth has propelled it past even major hotel chains (see “Bicoastal battle over short-term rentals ” in the May 11 issue of...
If you darned people aren’t going to cast enough votes then by golly we’ll just decide this election with the flip of a coin! That is the message clearly being sent by the tiny hamlet of Colp, Illinois to residents after two candidates for...
As of 2015, 1,235 of North Carolina’s dams were classified as “high hazard potential” by the American Society of Civil Engineers, the highest number in the nation. Texas had 1,212 dams with that same hazard potential, meaning that a...
The Louisiana Senate approved a trio of bills last week that form the backbone of Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) effort to reduce the Pelican State’s highest-in-the-world incarceration rate. Those measures – SBs 220 , 221 and 139 – would...
Following through on one of his primary campaign promises, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signed legislation ( SB 1474 ) that bars local governments from implementing their own “right to work” statutes, which bar union shops from requiring...
Countering a growing trend among retailers toward accepting only credit cards or other forms of electronic payment, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation last week requiring brick-and-mortar retail operations to accept cash and imposing potentially...
Wisconsin Gov. Toney Evers (D) unveiled an expansive plan last week to overhaul the Badger State’s marijuana laws. His proposal would make the drug legal for medicinal use, decriminalize cannabis possession and align the state’s CBD oil laws...
Midway through South Dakota’s legislative session, 10 percent of the bills under consideration are so-called “vehicle bills,” measures with no meaningful text that can still be acted upon and have text added at any point in the legislative...
IL Governor Signs SB 1 ILLINOIS Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) signs SB 1 , legislation that will raise the statewide minimum wage to $15 by 2025. The Prairie State joins CALIFORNIA, NEW YORK, NEW JERSEY and MASSACHUSETTS in adopting proposals to gradually...
In February, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced he was filing a lawsuit against Huntington Beach, the largest of several cities in the state that aren’t in compliance with a 2017 state law requiring local governments to include a “housing...
WA House Approves SB 5497 The WASHINGTON House approves SB 5497 , a measure that would, among several things, require state agencies to provide services without considering a person’s citizenship or immigration status and to put in place secure...
As of this month, 18 states have now passed legislation banning the sale of powdered alcohol, or Palcohol. Liquor control authorities have imposed Palcohol bans in two other states: Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. And although Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey...
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he wants to cut the state’s health care costs by importing prescription drugs from less expensive Canadian pharmacies. It is currently illegal for states to import drugs from foreign pharmacies, but DeSantis...
AZ House Endorses SB 1014 The ARIZONA House endorses SB 1014 , which would decrease the required English instruction time for English language learners from the current standard of four hours per day to about two hours per day. The measure is now with...
Seattle, Washington may be about to become the first city to enforce campaign disclosure laws on a social media company. In December Facebook and Google refused to turn over information about online ad sales for the city’s 2017 elections to a local...